Baker Institute report underscores President Obama

CONTACT: Jessica Stark
PHONE: 713-348-6777
EMAIL: stark@rice.edu

Baker Institute report underscores President Obama’s territory and security approach toward Israeli-Palestinian peace

A special report published in February 2010 by Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy supports President Barack Obama’s approach to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict and achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In a major speech at the State Department today, Obama reaffirmed his commitment calling for Israel and Palestine to establish secure and recognized borders based on the 1967 lines.

“The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine,” Obama said. “Two wrenching and emotional issues remain: the future of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees. Recognizing that negotiations need to begin with the issues of territory and security does not mean that it will be easy to comeback to the table.”

The Baker Institute special report, “Getting to the Territorial Endgame of an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Settlement,”supports the President’s approach that “… moving forward now on the basis of territory and security provides a foundation to resolve those two issues in a way that is just and fair, and that respects the rights and aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians.”

The special report also offers concrete recommendations to U.S. negotiators on the territorial component of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. Itdraws upon nearly two years of discussions between a working group of Israelis and Palestinians convened under the aegis of the institute’s ConflictResolution Forum and chaired by Baker Institute founding director Edward Djerejian.

Drawing on the deliberations of the Israeli and Palestinian participants in a Baker Institute workshop and the proposed options for a final territorialagreement, the report finds that a U.S. bridging proposal on the territorial component of peace based on the line of June 4, 1967, with agreed-upon swaps and modifications could be introduced at the right time and, depending on actual political circumstances, serve as a guide to enable gradual progress, step by step. The contours of this territorial bridging proposal are outlined in this report, as well as the need to prepare the necessary planning tools to achieve a successful outcome. The concept of “space and time” was underscored as an important part in any compromise solutions — namely, exploring the phasing of the relocation and dismantlement of settlements over a period of time.

The findings of the report provided policymakers in Washington, Jerusalem and Ramallah with the results of a “bottom-up” approach highlighting differences and areas of possible agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian positions on the key territorial issues. A primary assumption underlying this report is that the territorial component of peace cannot be negotiated and addressed in isolation of other final status issues, including Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and security.

“No agreement will please every constituency on either side,” said Djerejian, who is a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and to Israel, as well as former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs. “But this report can provide the respective governments with a heads-up on significant problems and contentious issues that they most likely will encounter in actual negotiations, and, at the same time, provide insights into where differences could be narrowed and agreements reached.”

The two teams convened by the Baker Institute provided narratives and submitted different maps containing territorial scenarios for the West Bank. While they did not reach a consensus, the two teams narrowed their differences in some key areas and established certain common criteria and guidelines for assessing the territorial issues. Eleven specific settlements in the West Bank were discussed in detail. Jerusalem, as a final-status issue, was not directly addressed in the report, but the most contentious settlements in the vicinity of the city were deliberated upon, and major obstacles to an agreement wereacknowledged and identified.

“In actual negotiations, strong political will on the part of the leadership of all the parties — and a viable and ongoing negotiating framework — will be necessary to help bring the parties to a final agreement,” Djerejian said. “And no real progress will be made without the direct and sustained involvement of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”

The Israeli and Palestinian participants in the discussions were former officials, both civilian and military, academics, experts from various organizations and individuals from the private sector.

To read the complete report, go to http://www.bakerinstitute.org/news/mapping-israeli-palestinian-peace.  

For more information or to schedule an interview with Djerejian, contactJessica Stark, assistant director of media relations, at stark@rice.edu or 713-348-6777.